THE TEAM LEADER

 

Tuesday January 14 - 1930 MST

Seven hours until Turbocharger activates

 

"What does he want us to do?"

I held up one finger to let Hawkins know I was still listening to the phone. Between his constant questions and the jackhammer pounding away down the corridor I could barely make out Kuzmin's words over the line. He was still over an hour out from touchdown but he wanted us to get moving our end of the plan. "Yes, sir. We'll get started immediately."

"Do you have stone yet?" Kuzmin's voice crackled over the satellite connection.

"We're almost there, sir. The govvies buried it under a couple feet of concrete. You can probably hear the boys with the jackhammer in the background."

"Good. Be quick. It will take time to work. Evacuate and move to Zulu as soon as it is started. Do you understand?"

There wasn't much to understand. We were supposed to find this allegedly magical stone in one cell of C-Watch and then insert it into a pile of stones kept in a different cell. Whatever reaction followed was apparently dangerous because the CTTC went through the trouble of keeping them separated and then burying this gem stone under two feet of concrete. "I understand, sir. We'll—"

The jackhammer stopped and one of my men shouted down the corridor. "We got it, boss!"

"…we got it, sir. We'll get started immediately."

Kuzmin said only one word before hanging up. "Good."

My guys left the jackhammer and its long cable laying on the floor. It was no longer our problem, just like the rest of this place. Our only job here was to take over just long enough to do this one thing. I wasn't sure what the result would be, only that it would be catastrophic.

When the men arrived they carried the ancient gem stone in a padded case. That was standard procedure in Praetorian. Not every exotic artifact gave off gamma rays or whatever aura that could give you cancer or turn you into something inhuman. But it was better to be safe than dead. So everything went into a box and away from exposed skin.

The stone looked like blackened glass, as if it were a shard of obsidian. Only it wasn't rough and angular like a natural stone. In fact it was narrow and had a man made look to it. But whatever it was supposed to be was unimportant. All that mattered was getting it into place and then getting the hell out of the Underground.

"Open up the gate." I shouted so the guys inside the control bunker could hear me. The thick walls and bulletproof glass of the little shelter did a good job of blocking out sound. But it was a necessary precaution for the guards that had to stay down in this hole with all the evil crap they stored down here.

The metal barred prison gate slid open on mechanical gears hidden in the walls. Then me and my team entered into the corridor where all the doors were marked with numbers that started at ninety and then went up. This was where the most dangerous stuff was stored. Rumor had it some of the government guards had disappeared down here and their voices could still be heard haunting the place. There was a time when I would have said nasty things to whoever repeated that kind of crap to my face. But a couple years in Praetorian made me a believer. I was glad we were dropping this thing and bugging out. Being in the heart of a place where nasty exotics were kept was not the ideal way to live to retirement.

"You know you never answered my question, boss?"

I looked over at Hawkins with a sideways glance. He was a good soldier, like everyone we hired, but at times he could ask too many questions. At least he had enough sense to only do it when there were lulls and not in the middle of a firefight. "We're gonna stick this stone into some bigger stones, and then evac to Zulu."

"So it's gonna blow this place up?"

I shrugged. "Kuzmin said it would take a while to build up. About as long as it would take for him to get back here. And we needed to be gone by then. So yeah. Something bad is gonna happen."

"But you don't know what." It wasn't a question. That was good, because I didn't have an answer if it was. "So how does Kuzmin know how long it's gonna take? I don't mean any disrespect to the guy, but he doesn't strike me as the kind of guy that likes to read about ancient legends. Or anything for that matter."

Again, Hawkins was asking too many questions. "It's not Kuzmin. Mister Rofocales is the one that knows."

Hawkins lost the urge to ask more questions at the mention of Praetorian's owner. Most people in the company didn't meet with him personally. But those that had never forgot the experience. There was something about him that got under your skin, and you knew not to mess with him. Ever.

I couldn't imagine having to deal with him every day, but as a team leader I spent most of my time out in the field and away from HQ. It didn't hurt that I was paid more than I could hope to ever make contracting out with one of the other PMCs. Most people learned right away to take their massive paycheck and shut up about the boss. Even Hawkins got that.

"Okay, ninety-two is the one we're after." I spun the vault locks on the door marked with a 92. The handle creaked with the built up corrosion of decades in this ungodly place. But it eventually relented and the door opened to darkness.

We lit the place up with our flashlights and found one of the largest rooms in the Underground. The big warehouse room was filled from one wall to the next with stone blocks. They were huge, white granite megaliths that looked like they had been quarried straight out of the side of a mountain. The floor of the room was actually about ten feet below us so that we could walk out onto the face of the stones. Most of them were big, school bus sized chunks of rock, far too big to have come through the door. Up above us were large circles of concrete in the roof that looked less weathered than the rest. That answered the question of how they got it all in here. It was lowered down by crane and then sealed up so no one could ever remove the stone monoliths.

In the middle was the biggest rock of all. This one was an enormous circle like some big wagon wheel of granite stuffed right into the middle of the school bus rocks. Only this one wasn't smooth like the rest. This big wheel had the unmistakable, migraine inducing hieroglyphs of exotic runes carved into its face. I'd learned long ago not to try and read them. If you had to look in their direction the best thing to do was let your eyes lose focus. That kept your brain from tying itself in knots trying to make sense of them.

In the center of the ring of alien writing was a series of pictures depicting animals that almost looked like things you'd find on Earth. But only if you didn't count the odd number of legs they had. And in the middle of those insane carvings was an almost imperceptible opening in the granite face. The hole was just large enough to insert the gem stone we brought with us.

I waved the guy with the case forward. "Gimme the gem."

He handed me a set of metal tongs and then flipped the case open. Even he wasn't brave enough to handle the rock with his hands. Using the tongs I scooped up the black gem and let it slip into the opening in the granite. It fell right in and fit like a glove. There was no guesswork involved or any ancient scrolls to read. We knew we'd hit the ten ring on this one.

Then the granite under our feet began to rumble, confirming my suspicion. Purple light peeked out from several small cracks in the rock. Then the runes began to glow with that light. As if that wasn't enough to freak me out, then the weirdest thing happened. The animal carvings under us began to move. Only they weren't actually going anywhere. It was like being hit by the strangest acid trip without actually doing acid.

I gestured at the vault door with my rifle. "We're done here. Let's move."

There wasn't any point in hanging out at ground zero. Our mission was accomplished with one minor exception. We had one last thing to do before we bugged out.

Behind us the purple light had seeped out of the cracks and had coalesced into an aura that now covered the big circle. The black gem floated just above it now like it was hanging on an invisible string. Beneath it the purple disk of exotic light went translucent and I could see what was going on in the stone below. The white granite was no longer white. It was going dark and turning soft and slick. Already it was glistening like it was wet.

And the stone was wriggling like it was alive.

That was when I realized that these stones weren't stones any longer. Those unnatural animals carved into them weren't carved into them. They had been trapped inside the rock like flies in amber for thousands of years, and now they were coming back. Once released they would be hungry and angry after thousands of years of imprisonment. That would keep the govvies busy long enough for us to escape and finish up the Turbocharger project. It was proof yet again that Mister Rofocales was too smart, and not a guy you wanted to cross. He always won.

I had to stop Hawkins from slamming the vault door shut behind us. I understood his sentiment because my instincts screamed to have as much steel and concrete between me and the exotic horrors about to sprout out of that room as possible. But we needed it open for our plan to work. "This is staying open. In fact all of them are. Hawkins, go down this corridor and open every door. We're gonna leave as many nasty surprises as we can for our friends."

For once Hawkins didn't ask questions. Instead he ran down the hall and started spinning locks. I clicked onto the company net then to get the rest of the plan rolling. "All callsigns, all callsigns, be advised…92 is now open. Begin withdrawals by the numbers. Kuzmin wants us moving to Zulu immediately. I need every callsign to call in and acknowledge. Over."

One-by-one the voices of the various Praetorian security posts called in. They'd all been briefed on the plan, and soon they would be moving out and leaving the remaining government forces to deal with the mess that was being dropped in their laps. Of course "forces" made it sound like they could put up a fight. All the actual shooters had been kicked out of the Underground. Everyone else was just office workers. And they were Air Force. I could have a good laugh at the thought of that bunch trying to fight. Everyone knows the Air Force can't fight.